Tara

NOTE:  This Sunday, February the 26th, Matt, Carlie, Larry, and I will be hosting a soup lunch after the regular service at New Hope.  We'll start serving at about 12:00 and each give presentations about the mission trip as well as be available for questions.  You don't have to be a member of New Hope to attend and I hope to see you there.

I wanted to take time to get a little more in depth about one of my team mates.

Tara wore traditional Indian garb for this mission.

Tara is a sweet young college student from California.  She’s studying to be a physical therapist and will no doubt be a good one.  I joked once that she is the softest rock I have ever met.  Her voice is very soft and she is fairly quiet, but she is incredibly resilient and steadfast.

In what is her first mission of this spring, she worked as our pharmacist.  She actually worked more hours than most of the team as after the clinic was over and we were back in our rooms to rest, she had to restock the pharmacy for the next days outing.  Each of us would see perhaps a total of 350 people in the course of the mission.  She would meet each and every of the 2053 that we ministered to.

I said that this was her first mission of the spring.  She is actually spending three months in a couple of continents doing mission and service work.  We left her in Delhi on Sunday where she will wait five days until her next mission in India, this time in the Punjab region ministering to Afghan refugees.  Of course, not one to sit around waiting for the next mission, she spent the five days in Delhi between e3 assignments by volunteering at a rescue mission for street girls in Delhi.

Tara (shown with Carlie) served as our chief pharmacist.

Her journey will then take her to Kathmandu to work at a rehabilitation center.  This is actually part of her schooling so in addition to ministry she will be working on her studies while she is there.  From there she will go to Nigeria to visit and help a friend who is a missionary there.  Then it’s a short stop in London before returning home.

She has been a delight to get to know.  From hearing her on the phone I first had the impression of a wide-eyed and naïve schoolgirl with a lot to learn about life.  Instead, I met a courageous young lady with a deep commitment to following God and an incredible desire to serve others.  I know for a fact that I wasn’t anywhere near that put together when I was twenty years old.  Sometimes I’m not sure I am now at more than double that age.